Lincoln found himself in what he could only describe as an increasingly awkward position. The maternal split personality had handled confronting Adrian quite easily, though instead of releasing control over Lynn's body, the split mind requested to go dress shopping instead, at first, he assumed it was a trick of some kind and that the maternal personality did not want to let go of the control it had. The middle Loud sibling had no choice but to go along with its requests, after all, what choice did he have? He just internally prayed that Lynn was actually getting internal rest and that the split personality had not been lying to him, he had no idea what to do otherwise beyond indulge the maternal personalities desires.
Lincoln and Miss Lynn were sat at a table in the food court of the mall, the bucktooth teenager had a small bowl of ice cream sat in front of him that he had been working through for the last few minutes, as well as the latest Ace Savvy comic book on the table, still unopened. Miss Lynn had gotten those for him, he was grateful, but that did not make this feel any less surreal to him. Lincoln had been with the maternal personality for the last few hours now, having helped it find a few new dresses that was to its liking, he covered the bill this time since he owed it to his older sister he felt like, given she covered the bill for the repair of the instruments.
"Is something wrong, Lincoln?" Miss Lynn's polite warm tone made Lincoln snap out of his daze, he looked at the one controlling his older sister, still unable to believe what he was seeing. The sporty Loud currently was wearing a light red dress with a white neckerchief on, though still wearing that beloved jacket of Lynn's. To the middle Loud sibling, it was like someone had been treating his older sister as if she were a dress up doll, never in his life did he think he would see Lynn wearing a dress voluntarily.
"N-No, I'm sorry Miss Lynn, it's just been a long day." Lincoln nervously apologized, looking over at the bag that had two other dresses in it she had chosen, as well as her original clothes. The white-haired teenager was merely glad that Miss Lynn did not want to go on a shopping spree as much as get some new clothes.
"I understand, it has been a stressful day. But after tonight, Luna and her band will be safe, you can take it easy." The split personality controlling Lynn reassured, reaching to him and gently caressing his cheek. "Thank you for all your hard work, I know you don't hear that nearly as much as you deserve to." She hummed, the touch of her hand felt like it had nothing but care and love in it. it truly felt like a mother's warmth.
"Thank you, Miss Lynn." Lincoln felt a smile appearing on his face, it always warmed his heart whenever he was thanked for helping out, this helped ease a lot of the stress that was on him. He really needed that relief too, given he knew that Lynn was going to be mad at him whenever she got back in control.
"You sound pretty confident; do you think Adrian and Brell can really convince Jake to stop?" The teenage boy had to ask, he knew the personality was optimistic in nature, though this Jake sounded insane to begin with.
"I'm certain, they are his best friends after all. I told them I would help set Jake straight if they would apologize to Luna, if they need my assistance, all they have to do is ask." Miss Lynn nodded, though the white-haired teenager could not help but to think that something was off, like she was not telling him something, he brushed it aside when he thought maybe this was a good opportunity to find out more about the split personality.
"Miss Lynn." Lincoln reached up and grabbed her hand with his own. "What is it you want? I know there was a reason you were made." The bucktooth boy was direct, that happy smile that was on her face, for the first time, seemed to break into a frown. Miss Lynn withdrew her hand away from him, looking as if she was hurt by his sudden interrogatory behavior.
"Do you know what Lynn feels sometimes? I can tell you her exact thoughts as of late..." Miss Lynn began, her motherly tone now matched one that more sounded like a parent that was disappointed in their own child. The middle Loud sibling felt himself freeze, he thought Lynn had told him everything, this was confusing him further and further the more they talked.
"Lynn has her rough edges, however, she still has emotions, lately she's been pondering one thing, if people would like her more if... Well, if I was her instead." The maternal personality tapped the table, Lincoln felt like her eyes were starting to tear through him with just her gaze. "Lynn has family, she has friends, she has those that hate her, those that like her, but she's quite empty inside, she's been feeling empty for many years, that hollowness kept increasing overtime I'm afraid." Miss Lynn continued, standing up and brushing off her dress, looking like she was resisting the desire to walk away from the conversation.
"Does she really think that...?" Lincoln found it hard to believe, had his older sister really been feeling this bad long before the split personalities even existed? The white-haired teenager never truly knew, his family all knew Lynn would sooner break a limb than let her stray feelings be known.
"The older you get the more your maternal instinct is supposed to develop, it hurts when you want to express these feelings but are not be able to, it's even more painful to know everyone around you would never go to you for comfort, advice, or help, unless they had no other choice, for those you love to think you're nothing but an emotionally uncaring meathead of a brute who's only good at running very fast or kicking a ball really far..." Miss Lynn continued, sounding rather upset now, the white-haired boy could even see tears welling in the corners of her eyes, though Miss Lynn was unaware of it entirely.
"I apologize for sharing her feelings, I know she won't be happy to have her thoughts be shared, I want to help Lynn, but what I want even more is to take care of those around me, no matter what I have to do." The split personality continued, looking at Lincoln made it hard not to regain that smile she had been missing, even if her eyes still held nothing but pain at digging up those thoughts. "I believe we've been here long enough." Miss Lynn finished there; it was readily apparent she wanted out of the conversation now.
"Oh, yeah." Lincoln blinked, having been listening intently, one thing that Miss Lynn was unaware of entirely, was the fact he had been recording the conversation on his cell phone, he wanted to let Lynn hear for herself when she got back in control and had the chance. Though before they could leave, the young boy stopped the split personality controlling his older sister in its tracks.
"Wait, don't you want to get changed back into your, uhm, Lynn's clothes? If you go home looking like that, she's going to get nothing but questions." Lincoln asked Miss Lynn, there was no way he can cover for the maternal personality if she entered the Loud house looking like this. With that dress and her hair no longer in a ponytail, Lynn looked like a completely different person, like she was matured far more than she actually was.
"But why? It's just a dress." Miss Lynn looked over herself, wondering if she appeared bad or not, the air of the conversation still felt rather tense, despite the fact they had left the previous discussion behind. He decided to gamble on attempting to force it into letting Lynn go, the bucktooth boy knew how scared Lynn was of letting these personalities out around her family, no matter what.
"You want to help Lynn you said? I don't know if I can trust you still, I don't even know if you should be near our younger sisters... The only thing I know, is that you're not the real Lynn, just a part of her. But if you go back home like this, all it's going to do is make her life harder." Lincoln explained the situation, trying to use what the maternal personality had said to him prior, if she truly wanted to help the one that she currently possessed, then Miss Lynn would not want to make Lynn's life at home any more difficult than it already was. The air only became tenser by that point, that smile of hers had flattened into an uncertain expression, hearing he did not trust her around their younger siblings was a rather painful thing to hear, she slowly nodded her head.
"As much as I disagree, I'll do it for you. You've done so much today, that it's the least I can do to repay you." The maternal personality agreed, not without announcing her disagreement with him, Lincoln felt a wave of relief wash over him. He saw her step towards him, wrapping her arms around him, Lincoln could tell she was treating it like a thank you hug, to him though, for some reason he swore it felt like Miss Lynn was clinging onto him, like a reluctant goodbye.
"Miss Lynn?" Lincoln chirped, she had gone limp while holding onto him, he sighed feeling a lot better already with that maternal split personality gone. He felt awful for treating the split personality badly at all, he just could not trust it however, something in the back of his mind implored him not to. The Middle Loud sibling had to put his family's safety above all else, he knew his older sister would agree.
"Ugh, my head..." Lynn groaned as her eyelids fluttered open, the first thing she saw was Lincoln looking at her while keeping his arms around her, he looked incredibly happy to realize it was in fact his older sister again. "Linc? What happened?" The sports loving girl asked, having to struggle a little before he finally let her go, having forgot he was holding onto her like that.
"Nothing bad Lynn, I'm just happy to see you again." Lincoln showed a toothy smile, the aspiring sports star felt refreshed, something did not seem right to her, actually she noticed her hair resting on her shoulders, she reached up and touched it with her hands in confusion, realizing it was no longer tied into a ponytail, then Lynn looked down, her eyes going wide upon seeing the dress that she currently wore.
"Nothing bad?! How did I wind up like this?! Oh my gosh." Lynn looked extremely embarrassed, the brunette taking out her cell phone and turning on the front facing camera. The 5th oldest Loud staring at herself, mortified, the rest of the world around her was rather easy to ignore at that point. Lincoln could not resist laughing, he knew she would react badly, since she absolutely loathed girly stuff, he just did not expect it to be like this.
"Now's probably not the best time to tell her that Miss Lynn had me take pictures of each dress she wore." Lincoln thought, simply shaking his head, unable to shake that smile on his face.
"If it makes you feel better, I think you look really good... you look very, motherly, like this." The middle Loud sibling had to say, letting his hands rest on his hips. He could see a deep crimson starting to appear on Lynn's cheeks, she was becoming increasingly flustered and embarrassed now.
"I told you to stop me if I went out of control." Lynn turned back to her brother, arms crossed and face as red as a tomato. She could not tell what was worse, being seen like this, knowing she had been seen dressed like this in public, or that she had no recollection of anything that the maternal split personality had done for what felt like a while to the sporty girl.
"Miss Lynn wanted to go dress shopping; It took some work but, I was able to convince her to let you go." Lincoln explained to his older sister, though hearing 'miss' before her name at all did nothing to help Lynn's embarrassment.
"You gave it a name?! And I swear, if you tell a single person about this..." Lynn began to threaten her only brother, she closed her mouth immediately when she saw him hold up his cell phone, he looked pretty proud himself at the moment. Lynn could not believe her brother had named it as well, to the auburn-haired teenager, she felt like giving any of the split personalities a name did the opposite of deny their existence, if anything it solidified it, and that scared her.
"I was able to talk to your maternal half, I think you'll be happy with what I was able to get on recording." Lincoln exclaimed, his older sister seemed to calm down hearing him say that, she took a few more breaths to calm herself. "I don't know if it lied or not to us, it told me it was trying to let you rest by staying in control, I could tell it really didn't want to go either." The white-haired teenager elaborated further; he picked up the bag with the clothes in it and offered it to his older sister, dangling it on a few of his fingers. Lynn snatched it from his grasp with no hesitation, though before she made to the nearest bathroom to get changed, she found herself pausing.
"Please, tell me that it was able to talk to Adrian." Lynn had to know the answer, feeling like she would explode if it turned out she had let herself be taken over for literally no real result.
"It went great, Lynn. I'll tell you everything after you get changed." Lincoln assured that everything had gone perfectly, despite there being a few hiccups in the initial plan, like the maternal split personality refusing to relinquish control of Lynn's body, it was a pretty easy talk.
"Do you think this counts as a date? Even if it wasn't you at the steering wheel." The obsessed personality in her head was already speaking in her mind once again, the brunette bit her lip and tried to shake it off.
"Good, thanks Lincoln..." Lynn could only say, no longer wanting to stay there as she left the food court to go get changed back into her clothes and out of that dress, the brunette feeling nothing other than shame at the moment. The white-haired teenager felt bad for her still, though he felt like it was ultimately still a positive gain for this situation as a whole.
"Hm?" Lincoln heard his cell phone starting to ring, he recognized the ringtone being Lisa's, he put the phone up to his ear after accepting the call. "Hey Lisa, what's up?" The middle Loud sibling answered with a joyful tone to his voice, he had a good bit of fun teasing Lynn like that, he just hoped she would not hold it against him.
"Hello Lincoln, I'm calling to let you know that we were successful in repairing Sam's guitar and Sully's drums." Lisa responded, the sound of a small clink and a groan of pain being heard on the other end of the phone, the white-haired teenager quirking an eyebrow. "Yeah! You should've seen it! Lisa let me use her laser thingy to fix the drums, it was awesome!" Lana exclaimed, having more or less bashed her head against Lisa's so she could talk to their older brother too.
"It is NOT a 'thingy' it is a molecular reconstructive device! Might I add that you overheated that as well." The child genius did not appreciate having any invention of hers being ridiculed with such a worthless name.
"Great job you two, that was really fast." Lincoln had to comment, impressed by the twos quick work, he imagined the money Lynn had given them was far more than enough motivation to inspire them to work faster.
"Evidently our teamwork capabilities far exceeded expectations." Lisa said, she was merely happy to be praised by her brother, though working with Lana was certainly a very interesting, albeit exhausting experience.
"Are you going to make it home before dinner by the way?" Lana questioned; the Loud siblings had curfew to be home at a specific time, usually around dinner, the family were good at covering for each other if any of them were late. Lincoln pulled his phone away from his ear to check the time, realizing it was already 4pm, today had been a rather crazy one to him.
"Yeah, me and Lynn just went to the mall after school, that's all." Lincoln half lied, he was still absorbing the events of today as a whole, something was off to him but he could not put his finger on it. The bucktoothed teen was looking forward to Lynn talking to Lisa about her current mental issues, he could only hope that she did not chicken out when the time came after Luna's instrument was repaired.
"Do please hurry, I believe it's Luan's turn to help make dinner tonight, and I fear what pranks will be involved this time." Lisa requested from her older brother, Luan was not a bad cook, but being a known prankster made everyone equally hesitant to trust their food, it was like a bad game of roulette whenever she was involved. Lincoln typically kept an eye out to be safe, he could see his older sister coming back, dressed in her regular attire and her hair fixed back into its ponytail, her demeanor still expressed a lot of embarrassment.
"You got it. Thanks again you two." Lincoln hung up after that, he stuffed his cell phone back into his pocket. "Ready to head home, Lynn? I'll tell you everything that happened on the way back." The high school boy asked, he was surprised to see Lynn had kept the bag with three dresses held within it, he had actually anticipated her stuffing it into the first garbage can she came across after changing.
"What? You bought them for me, I'm not about to waste your money." Lynn huffed when noticing her only brother eyeing the shopping bag confusedly, the middle Loud sibling shrugged it off, he would not have minded either way nor blamed her at all. Lincoln was happy to hear that the brunette actually was starting to remember bits and pieces of what Miss Lynn had done while in control, he guessed it took time for her brain to catch up to the sudden shifts in personality dominances. Lynn was wanting to get going already, she was stopped when she felt her brother's hand on her shoulder.
"I wasn't lying when I said you looked good by the way, I just wanted you to know that." Lincoln smiled, Lynn blinked, her brothers words were unexpected, it felt rather random for him to be complimenting her like that, even if he was not a fan of the circumstances that led to this.
"He's only saying that to make you feel better." The depressed personality chimed up, Lynn tried to grab her left hand again to silence it, though there was no pain, she cursed internally upon realizing that her injury had healed to the point it was no longer sore to the mere touch, which meant it was not reliable as a method to silence the depressed voice in her head now.
"I think he's hitting on us. This really has been a great date." The obsessed personality giggled, Lincoln saw Lynn holding her head, it was still throbbing in pain, much to her irritation.
"Let's just go home, I'm starving." The sports loving Loud muttered, her brother did not argue since he was assuming the head pain was a side effect of the maternal personality being in control for so long.
"After you, princess." Lincoln jokingly bowed.
"I will suplex you."
"Sorry, couldn't resist."
Lincoln had spent most of the walk on the way back home recounting everything that had happened with the maternal personality to Lynn, though the sporty Loud was not happy at all about the fact he had given the maternal personality a name, she was even more unhappy when hearing that the split personality had lied to them, even if it was through omission. While Lynn sure felt better than she did this morning, she still hated being forced to rest, though throughout listening to her brother's recounting of the meeting with Adrian and Brell, Lynn couldn't help but think something was missing, some small detail that was on the edge of her memory, she just could not reach it no matter how hard she tried however.
The mid-afternoon felt rather relaxing to her, the sun starting to set lit the sky up a bright orange, the beautiful colors were mesmerizing, Lynn was wondering why she was noticing these sorts of things so much lately, normally the way the sky looked, the way colors popped out, she never paid it much attention, the brunette was wondering if it was just a symptom from being utterly torn out from her usual routine or not. With how much her life was changed so suddenly, the auburn-haired girl was starting to doubt a lot about herself.
When the two Loud siblings got home, they saw Lori's familiar car parked in the driveway alongside vanzilla, the two did not mind, always happy to have either of their siblings visiting. They could see Luna relaxing on the front porch, just trying to enjoy the autumn air while she worked more on her song lyrics.
"Hey dudes, welcome home." Luna greeted her younger siblings. "Did ya hear the good news? Lisa and Lana were able to fix Sam and Sully's instruments! My guitars gonna take a few more days though." The aspiring rock star eagerly spoke to her brother and sister, knowing Lisa and Lana had succeeded thus far had been enough to restore her hope fully and remove all traces of sorrow that had been there from the instruments near destruction.
"Yeah, Lisa called to let me know." Lincoln nodded. "I need to get inside, Luan's supposed to help cook tonight and I need to make sure she doesn't add any extra surprises." The middle Loud sibling said, heading inside on that note. Lynn was about to follow him, though she stopped when hearing her older sister chime up.
"Hey Lynn, can I talk with you a sec?" Luna requested, the sports loving Loud raising an eyebrow in suspicion, she was hoping this was not going to be another spine snapping hug session like last night. The sporty Loud took a seat on the steps, resting her shopping bag down.
"What's going on, Luna?" Lynn queried, feeling like there was a subtext to this conversation that she was missing out on entirely, though she kept quiet on that aspect.
"You've been acting pretty different lately. You'd tell us if something big happened, right?" The aspiring rock star asked, while pointing out the obvious weird behavior of her younger sister. The sports loving girl immediately felt her heartrate increase hearing that, she was frozen for a moment, uncertain as to what to say. "I'm not saying it's a bad thing, honestly if it weren't for you the other day, I'd probably still be a washed-up mess." The older Loud claimed, remembering that loving embrace she received back at the practice location from Lynn.
"I-I... I don't think I've been acting that weird." Lynn stuttered out nervously, too hesitant to look her older sibling directly in the eye, mostly because even Lynn herself did not believe her own deflection there, plus she could tell that Luna already had an eager grin on her face. The sports loving Loud felt an arm get wrapped around her, that was the moment she realized she was not able to flee from this conversation.
"Come on, sneaky phone calls, wanting to go to school early, for someone who never had anything but sports to do after school, you sure stay out late too now." Luna began, the brunette suddenly feeling nothing but panic. Her plan had been just to distract her family with a clever trick, leaving them to their own imaginations, Lynn did not know what to say or do at this point. "Who's the lucky guy?" The rock loving Loud hummed, and just like that, her little sister froze up.
Lynn did not really have any ideas now, she couldn't keep stacking lie upon lie, it was a dangerous game to play that could all come crumbling down at the slightest misstep, though when the brunette thought about it, a fake boyfriend would give her pretty good coverage, as well as excuses whenever she needed to explain away her odd behavior from the split personalities.
"A boyfriend? We'd just scare him off or hurt him, like we do everyone else..." The depressed personality sighed; Lynn swore she could feel her energy being sucked away just from listening to it. There was a different type of question that was brewing in the sporty Loud girl's mind however, she thought maybe it would work for a good change in the topic as well.
"Luna, how do you know you like someone?" Lynn suddenly asked, looking her older sister dead in the eyes. Luna paused, was she actually getting one of her more stubborn siblings to open up to her? That alone was a shocking step, while the older Loud was practically a second mother to her younger siblings, the older half of the family had trouble whenever admitting they needed help.
"That's... Kind of a hard question, dude." Luna leaned back in her spot on the steps, while not being exactly the best at relationships herself, the rock loving Loud had been in a rough spot with Sam here and there, it took her half a year to even confess her feelings to the blonde girl, and even after that, Luna and Sam had their fair share of rough patches, but they got through it.
"Love is a confusing thing; you might not even know you're in love with someone for a long time... Love hides behind a lot of emotions, if you're scared or don't think you're ready, then it hides behind fear, anger, hatred, stuff like that." Luna began to speak with her own personal experience and views when it came to love. Lynn found herself shrinking in her seat hearing that. "Sometimes it can be the most straight forward of things though, every time you look at that lucky someone, they make you smile; they make your heart race, make your head feel funny, and you feel like you can take on the world as long as they're with you." The aspiring rock star exclaimed with aplomb.
"The biggest regret I have about love though, is just how much time I wasted before I told Sam how I felt." Luna ended her small speech there, running a hand through her own hair. The rock loving Loud took notice of the shopping bag, she noted that Lynn was spacing out, the girl with the ponytail staring at the yard with a rather vacant gaze. What Luna was completely unaware of, was the fact that the obsessed personality was seemingly deciding to speak up a lot more than it normally did, it hurt incredibly badly.
"Doesn't that sound familiar?"
"Come on! Just listen to me already!"
"You know what she's saying is true, you've wasted YEARS of time!"
"You wanna grow up old, alone, and hopeless?"
"He always cared, he's the one who cared the most! He always says you're his favorite, he must feel the same!"
"No matter what you did to him, no matter how badly you hurt him, he still is the one who cared about you the most."
Luna decided to take the opportunity to take a closer look in the shopping bag, reaching to it and opening it with her left hand, the rock loving Loud was surprised when seeing what looked like a set of three dresses inside, each one looked pretty in their own regard, one was redder in theming, one was primarily white, the other was a mix of the two. The guitarist whistled, impressed at the selection made from someone who hated clothes shopping to begin with, the 3rd oldest Loud sibling assuming Lincoln had a hand in helping pick out the clothes, he sure had plenty of experience at it.
"Wow Lynn, I didn't think I'd ever see you buying dresses..." Luna turned back to her younger sister, Lynn was refusing to look at her currently, what the guitarist was startled by seeing a forced fake smile that looked like it was trying to hide pure agony that her eyes could not cover up at all.
"Lynn?" The aspiring rock star did not get to say anything further, Lynn did her best to keep her composure, as she grabbed the shopping bag.
"Thanks for talking to me, Luna." Lynn had to force the thanks past her vocal cords, before hurrying inside the house, keeping the bag close to her side, Luna was concerned about her sister, though the guitarist assumed she had accidentally hit a sore topic without knowing it, nonetheless Luna was not going to force her company onto her little sister if she did not want it at the moment, the aspiring rock star thought she had already given plenty of advice for the time being.
Lynn was internally panicking right now, the sports loving Loud knew that if she did nothing then the obsessed personality would get control, her heart was racing and her breathing was becoming increasingly rough. The brunette had no idea what to do, she had not been able to think up anything that could suppress the split personality that was after her brother.
"Come on, just let me out to play, I promise you won't regret it!" The obsessed voice insisted in her head.
"Indulge it, how do I indulge it..." Lynn was mentally scrambling, she felt her eyes darting all over the place, until they settled on her only brother in the kitchen, Lincoln was standing beside Lori, who looked a little exhausted right now, clearly having had a rough day, Luan standing in front of them holding a small bottle of blue food dye. The 5th oldest Loud having a light bulb go off in her head.
"No, Luan, I really don't think anyone will find it funny if you turn the pasta sauce a different color." Lori sighed in exasperation, having been put in the same position as her brother, trying to make sure no pranks ruined people's appetites tonight.
"I guess you got a point, especially with how 'blue' you already are." Luan joked in response; Lori could only hold her palm against her face. Lynn Senior and Rita being off in different parts of the house currently handling other tasks, leaving the few Loud children to handle cooking the food for the time being.
"You did kind of walk into that one." Lincoln lightly laughed, as funny as he found this oldest sister's suffering at puns to be, he couldn't really disagree with her either.
"I know I did." Lori dragged her hand down her face, just trying to ignore it, taking notice of Lynn as she entered the kitchen.
"Oh, hey Lynn, how was school?" Lori tried to speak to the sporty Loud, trying to strike up casual conversation, though something felt rather off to the oldest Loud. Lori had been told over the phone that Lynn's behavior was getting increasingly strange, including the supposed rumor of Lynn having a boyfriend that was spreading in the Loud house, or rather had spread, despite feeling tired Lori decided to pay a visit to see how everyone was doing.
Lynn did not acknowledge their oldest sister initially, she swallowed the lump in her throat, trying to get up the courage to say what she wanted to say. "Lincoln... Can I have a hug?" The sports loving girl announced what it was that she desired, there was an awkward pause in the air, Luan and Lori both looking equally confused. Lynn's tone was odd, it came off timid and slightly fearful, like she was scared he was going to get mad at such a small request.
"You know you don't have to ask for that sort of thing, Lynn." Lincoln gave a comforting smile, actually finding it rather random for his sporty sibling to ask like that, especially since he was used to being full body tackled by her with zero warning. The second he agreed Lynn wrapped her arms around him tightly, the middle Loud child blinked, though did not complain as he also wrapped his arms around her in trade.
Lynn instantly felt the pressure in her head starting to ease up, and her heart starting to return to its normal pace, her breathing was able to relax as it no longer felt like her lungs were being crushed. It had been enough to finally quiet the obsessed voice in her head, the aspiring sports star breaking away from her brother.
"Thanks Linc, I really needed that." Lynn smiled, beginning to leave the kitchen so she could get upstairs and put her new clothes away. "And it went alright, Lori." She lately replied, the sound of her stepping up the staircase ringing out pretty well in the silence.
"Okay, Lola wasn't kidding, Lynn really is acting weird." Lori held her head, she had been worried enough about her brother and sister after their incident, the strange behavior did little to assist those woes. Lincoln was happy to have confirmation on Lola being a glorified spy for their oldest sister at least.
"Yeah, last night me and Lucy went to wake her up for dinner, she was crying a lot in her sleep... I've never seen her have a nightmare that bad before." Luan was not able to joke about the situation, describing to her older blonde sibling what had happened yesterday. Lincoln taking the dye away from his comedic sister before she could try and sneak it in secretly.
"Do you know anything, Lincoln?" Lori attempted to inquire from her only brother, the bucktooth boy guessing he had to run interference for Lynn again, he did not mind though, having done it for each of his sisters except for Lily at one point or another.
"I mean, she's got stress and boredom building up and no outlet for it, I think she's sick of being benched already." Lincoln tried to pass it off as merely a side effect of the fact Lynn had to go from several sports games a week, to zero, not being allowed to participate in any sport or any real strenuous activity, until her skull healed, trying to make it out to be like the boredom and the stress was starting to take its toll.
"Yeah, but Lynn is really getting clingy to you lately, don't you think?" Luan could not help but to point out the increasing clinginess of the sporty Loud, the two being apart less and less often, as if they were scared to be separated. The bucktooth boy wanted to tell them it was outright what Lynn wanted him to do, but was unable to deny their attachment to one another had increased drastically since the traumatic event, the split personality situation had only amplified it even more.
"Sorry you two, I know about as much as you do, I'm not complaining though, it's nice to have her around to help, and even nicer to spend time with her without it being training for something." Lincoln shrugged, he hated lying to his siblings, no matter how much he had improved at it over the years, he had to try and prioritize Lynn's mental health currently, their entire family figuring out the truth about the split personalities prematurely would certainly be too much to handle.
"Dang, I was really hoping you'd know who her boyfriend was." Luan snapped her fingers; the Loud sisters had been hoping their brother would be able to inform them further on it. Lincoln did not know if he should try and reinforce Lynn's lie or not, he sighed, deciding to go with his own route on this and take control of the situation.
"Honestly? I don't think Lynn has a boyfriend..." The white-haired teenager began. "I think she is starting to feel lonely; it's probably going to be a while before she ever is able to really be herself again." Lincoln finished with that, Lori and Luan were in good relationships themselves, Luan had Benny and Lori had her longtime boyfriend Bobby, the middle Loud sibling had failed in his own love life two times already, so he was kind of close to giving up on finding that special someone himself.
"Well, I guess as long as you're watching out for her, what's the worst that can happen?" Lori smiled while rhetorically speaking, feeling reassured from how much her little brother cared for Lynn, the oldest Loud sibling doubted the sports loving girl could really get into trouble with Lincoln at her side, completely unaware of just how wrong she was to the truth of the matter.
"Yeah, we have nothing to fear if Lincoln is here." Luan agreed with their oldest sister, the two confident Lincoln would tell them straight away if he even suspected something terrible was going on, again, the bucktooth boy hating the irony in these statements, yet he felt pretty happy knowing they had that much faith in him, it made him feel worse to be tray those expectations. The middle sibling hoped that Lisa would be able to help once Lynn was able to talk to the genius.
When Lynn got back to her room the first thing that she did was hide her new dresses away, she was glad to know now she had found a way to suppress all the split personalities now, she wished she had realized it sooner, the reason why the obsessed personality was never able to take over before now, was due to the pure luck of how often Lynn had spent time with Lincoln lately.
"His support, his affection, just his touch, that's enough to stop it, huh?" Lynn sighed, still unable to believe it, though she was glad the obsessed one was seemingly rather easy to handle, she was lost on what Luna had said to set it off like that though, the sporty Loud could only guess that it was due to the conversational topic of love. The sporty Loud was completely unaware of just what transpired whenever she went to bed each night.
"If some hugs and handholding from Lincoln are all I need to shut it up, then this'll be easy." Lynn scoffed, finding it rather ridiculous how easy it seemed to be to handle.
Lynn spent the next half hour trying to relax and ease up again, it felt like a rather calm evening to her, especially compared to this morning, though the brunette suddenly heard her cell phone starting to ring, she took it out but did not recognize the number of the one calling.
"Hello? Who is this?" The girl with the damaged skull answered hesitantly.
"Lynn? It's Adrian, sorry if this is a bad time." Adrian responded over the phone, Lynn raised an eyebrow in confusion, her brother did not mention anything about sharing her phone number. "Look, we tried talkin' to Jake. He wouldn't listen, he lost it and ran off." Adrian tried to explain the situation, the sports loving Loud remembered Lincoln telling her the true culprit was an ex-band member of King Woofer, she was uncertain just how out of control he had become though.
"So, I did what you told me to. He took off the second I told him about it." The leader of the band continued, the 5th oldest loud quirking an eyebrow.
"What... I told you to do?" Lynn shakily repeated in nervous uncertainty.
"Yeah, look I'm sorry to put this on your shoulders, I think you're the last chance to set Jake straight." He said his apologies, feeling bad for even having to rely on someone younger than himself. "Thank you again, we'll be over tonight to do what you asked." Adrian hung up the phone once he finished speaking, as if he was delivering a message and nothing more.
"... Miss, what did you do?" Lynn spoke to herself, trying to address the maternal personality by the name that her brother had given it.
"I promised we would set Jake straight for them if they would apologize to Luna and Sam. So, I asked them if they would say a few select words during the conversation." The maternal personality hummed rather peacefully, sounding prouder of the matter than anything. "Why do you think the aggressive personality is being quiet? Because they know their chance is coming up." The motherly mindset added, Lynn felt her heart starting to beat harder.
"What did you tell them to say?" The aspiring sports star demanded, not able to believe that any of the split personalities would be working together even, they did not like to cross the line against one another, yet here the motherly one was, seemingly insisting that another one have a turn in control.
"I told them to inform Jake that he did not destroy all the instruments, and that the rest still are at the practice location." The motherly toned voice declared, that had been their plan, to get them to trick Jake into being in a partially isolated place, hopefully alone. Lynn looked at her alarm clock, seeing it was already getting close to curfew, she bit her lip, hard enough that it was starting to draw blood.
"He might burn down the whole place if he can't find anything there, either. And if Sam, Sully, or Mazzy are there, they'll be in trouble." The aggressive personality stated, describing what might happen if Lynn sat around and did nothing, it made her upset, she couldn't ignore this, it was a trap, one she was caught in. The brunette had to make a choice, admit her insanity or take a chance to stop the culprit behind destroying the instruments from potentially doing something worse, and thus temporarily silence some of her personalities in the process. Even then, Lynn doubted Luna would believe her initially, or at least enough to call the band and make sure they all stayed away from their practice location, the brunette expecting that the time would be wasted on her instead.
"You two put the rest of the band in danger, just so I'd be forced to do confront him...? They all see that place like a second home!" Lynn could not believe what she was hearing, the chances of one of the band members being there were high.
"It was to keep Luna safe; plus, we're strong enough to keep them all safe, so long as you do not hesitate to help." The motherly personality argued her reasoning, the sporty Loud stood there in wide eyed shock, she only had one choice it seemed, or one she was willing to accept, Lynn immediately began texting on her cell phone for a moment, calling in a favor from a dear friend of hers, she then she grabbed her jacket back off of her bed, quickly sliding it back on as she hurried out into the hallway, hopping onto the staircase railing before sliding downstairs.
"Mom! Dad!" Lynn called out for her parents, seeing them helping set the table for dinner, her panicked tone caught the attention of a lot of her family actually.
"Lynn? What's going on?" Lori asked, startled by her younger sister's panic.
"Did something happen?" Lola queried in concern, the only ones that weren't downstairs at the moment were Lincoln, Lana Lisa and Lily.
"Why is your lip bleeding?" Lucy pointed out her roommate's injury, the brunette wiping the blood off her lip, ignoring it entirely.
"Did the spring-loaded snakes I hid under your pillow do that?" Luan chirped, hoping she had not accidentally hurt her sister with the prank. Lynn making a mental note about that for later.
"What's the matter little dude?" Luna insisted their sister talk to them, so they could be of help with whatever was going on.
"Kids, remember, breathing room." Lynn Senior reminded his many children, having to say that whenever a situation was getting too crowded. Him and his wife stepping over to their 5th daughter.
"What's the matter, Lynn?" Rita requested their daughter not hesitate to tell them what was wrong.
"I need to talk to you both, it's really important." Lynn Junior pleaded with her parents, Rita putting a hand on the sporty Louds shoulder insisting she take a breath.
"Okay, okay, you can come to our room." Lynn Senior said, motioning for her to calm down, while he was not exactly the best in a high stress situation, that's how he lost most of the hair on his head to begin with, he always tried his best for his family no matter what. Lynn Junior following her parents to their bedroom, it was usually the perfect place to talk privately with the Loud parents, though most of the siblings dreaded being called in there alone.
Of course, the moment the door to the room was closed, the many siblings that were there immediately were trying to eavesdrop on the conversation, pressing their ears against the door or keeping as quiet as possible to listen in. Lori sighed seeing this, she knew it was a waste of time trying to spy on the conversation between their parents and Lynn Junior, Lisa was requested to soundproof the door two years ago, for their parent's sake of privacy.
"Ugh I can't hear a thing..." Luan groaned in irritation.
"I'd listen through the vents, but the heat being on makes it hard." Lucy said, just a side effect of autumn sadly.
"If Lynn needs help, then why won't she talk to us?" Luna asked the currently present sisters, the aspiring rock star had to wonder if it had something to do with their own heart to heart outside earlier.
"It sounded really personal." Lola commented, that look on Lynn's face had been full of panic, like she had received terrible news of some sort.
After a few minutes, they heard the sound of the door to their parents' bedroom unlocking, Lynn Junior darting straight out of it and barreling past her sisters the second the door was open.
"Lynn! Wait! What's going on?!" Lori shouted at her, receiving no response as she noticed the sports loving Loud heading for the garage.
"Lori, let her go." Rita told her oldest daughter, the mother Loud sounding very firm in her tone, the order being directed to all their children it seemed.
"But Mom, something is going on here, you can't just tell us to ignore it when she's clearly upset about something!" Luna argued against this, not a fan of this stand by idly method anymore.
"Girls, please. It's important." Lynn Senior could only say, the Loud parents both looking like they had heard rough information from their 5th child.
"What happened, Dad?" Lola asked, wanting to be told what was going on as much as the rest of her family, even if she hated how much Lynn Junior got lately.
"She looked worried too..." Luan had to point out what she felt like she saw in her sporty sibling's face when she was hurrying off.
"Her friend is having a breakdown, and she's the only one who can really help them. That's all we can tell you." Rita claimed, the Loud parents had not wanted to say anything further since Lynn Junior had made it readily obvious that she did not want anyone else to know the situation beyond the bare minimum.
"Let's just focus on dinner for now, she's going to be back later tonight." Lynn Senior insisted, trying to get their children to ease up, the Loud parents were not going to budge on this matter it seemed.
Lynn junior had hit the road right away after getting her bike, the brunette having her phone held up to her ear. "Seriously Margo, I owe you BIG for that. Sorry I put you on the spot." The sporty Loud had relied on one of her best friends for help in the situation when she needed a cover story, Margo, Lynn hated calling in favors at all, but she needed a means to be allowed out of the house past curfew, and one immediately at that. "You're pretty convincing at acting." She added, having had Margo send a fake voice message like she was having a mental breakdown due to various circumstances, it was partially incoherent, but plenty enough to convince the Loud parents that Lynn could not ignore her friends distress.
"You can pay me back by buying lunch after our next game together." Margo joked in response. "Take care Lynn, I know you hate asking for help. I can't wait for you to come back; baseball isn't really the same without you." The baseball player wished her best friend luck, Lynn smiled hearing that, just breathing a sigh of relief.
"You got it, and thanks again Margo." Lynn thanked her once more before hanging up, the sports loving Loud focusing on the task at hand, wanting to focus on nothing else. She was hoping that Lincoln would not be mad at her for this, she hoped that keeping that honest chain of communication open between them would be enough to make up for it.
When Lynn got to the abandoned workshop that Luna treated as her band's practice location, the brunette was taking immediate notice of just how many more people were around at this hour, it really was a night life type of area here. The sports loving Loud getting off her bike, not even caring to put the kickstand up as it clattered down.
The high school girl could see the roll up metal door to the abandoned workshop was not shut all the way, as if whoever had come had opened it and carelessly let it just fall back down. Lynn took that as a bad sign already, she decided not to knock as she slipped her hands underneath the shutter and shoved it upward, letting it roll open, stepping inside she closed it back down.
"Crap, that's Sully's van." Lynn muttered, recognizing the van parked inside to keep it safe from the many party goers outside; the brunette looking at the garage door and seeing a chain resting by it, normally used to keep it held down at night though was not used at the moment, looking like it was simple forgetfulness.
Lynn stepped further inside, there were barely any lights on, once thing she noticed were two people passed out in the makeshift bedroom in part of the workshop. "Mazzy? Sully?" The auburn-haired Loud tried to step towards them, though before she could get close, she heard the sound of something clattering to the ground coming from her left. Lynn's head snapped in that direction, she hoped the other two band members were okay, she would have to check on them afterwards.
Lynn headed straight to where the noise came from, stepping to the left side of the workshop was another room entirely, it had a bunch of metal shelves in it that were holding various things, though most were empty and gathering dust. The brunette noticed a paint can rolling on the ground near another small row of the more filled shelves that had mostly unlabeled cardboard boxes on them.
"Jake? If you're here, just, come out please." Lynn called out, her voice sounding uncertain, she hoped he was not here at all actually, it meant she could stay on guard instead of having to worry about an intruder. Those hopes of hers fell immediately when hearing another pair of footsteps ahead of her, stepping out from hiding was a taller lanky individual with short black hair, he was wearing a denim coat, he looked like a mess, like he had not slept in days from stress.
"Who are you? H-How do you know me?" Jake confirmed who he was, he was rather shaky, the 5th oldest Loud still did not feel safe trusting him, he was a little bit taller than her, though probably equal in weight.
"Now's our chance, just break those arms of his like the twigs they are." The aggressive personality in her head spoke, Lynn felt her own skull throbbing in pain again, but she ignored it.
"I'm Lynn. Look, I know what you're here to do, and you need to stop." Lynn decided to attempt to talk the older man down, he had done enough damage as is, if he went any further it would result in something irreparable happening.
"I have to do it, I have to, I've already gotten rid of two other bands that were going to enter." Jake spoke, stepping closer to her, the Loud girl stepping back in response to that, yet she decided to remain firm in her position, she couldn't run, though she was going to do her best to not give that aggressive personality in her head what it wanted.
"Why even? I know money is on the line, but you don't even have a band to enter the competition with! They just want to live their life now, and all you're doing is making that harder and harder the more damage you do." The brunette argued, she felt sympathy for Jake, knowing he had probably been like any other aspiring music lover, wanting to be big and make something out of their passion, only to suddenly get told their band was broken apart and their first chance at getting somewhere was essentially non-existent now. Lynn understood it, she had heard that exact fear from Luna plenty of times, including once when her own band was at risk of falling apart, Lincoln had helped pull it back together in the end through his own hard work.
"Don't you care? You went to the same music class with these people..." Lynn continued; she was resisting what the voice in her head wanted to do. She saw him grab onto the metal shelf, as if he needed it for support.
"I can't fail, if I do... I may as well not be me anymore. I gave up so much to be a great drummer for them, then they spit in my face like that." Jake shook his head; his whole body was starting to shake actually, the brunette had struck a nerve, what Lynn had not taken notice of the fact the shelf she stood next to was moving. "If I fail here, then I have to admit there's no chance for me." He suddenly yanked the shelf down, the metal rack did not have a chance to crash into Lynn, she had caught it with one hand and minimal effort thanks to her strength, simply shoving it backwards and letting it crash the opposite direction. It was enough to startle Jake into not trying anything further at least.
"Do you want to help him?" The maternal personality questioned within Lynn's head, the familiar pang of pain echoing in her skull.
"Or do you just wanna crush'em?" The aggressive voice followed it up with a query of their own. The brunette was getting angrier by the minute, enraged at the older boy before her that had hurt Luna with what they did, furious at the voices that put her in this trap to bait her into a tough choice, or some clever play to get Lynn to lose control to the stress.
"I'm going to tell you this, one more time, this is your last chance, so listen." Lynn growled; she was not sure why she was even tolerating the drummer now after the stunt they just attempted to pull. Jake was backed into a glorified corner in this room, he was not going to be able to get out of it otherwise. The auburn-haired girl reached into her coat pocket, taking out that familiar shark tooth that Adrian had entrusted to her after meeting Miss Lynn.
"I don't see why else you'd have left this behind if you didn't want to be stopped... It's not exactly easy to lose." Lynn held it up, her teeth grinding slightly as she tried to resist what she wanted to do with it, deciding to let her thoughts become clearer before he had a chance to speak.
"Adrian didn't even want it anymore, that's how disgusted he was with you." Lynn informed Jake, she tossed the shark tooth in the air a few times, catching it like she was thinking. "If you don't stop this right now, I'll give you a better reason to not be able to play music." She opted into listening to her aggressive split personality for an idea on how to intimidate Jake into giving this up.
"I-I'm not scared of a kid's threats." Jake panted, though it was apparent she was getting to him just for the topics she was touching upon, he did not look directly at her though, he broke eye contact out of nervousness. While he was distracted, he suddenly felt Lynn grab him by the throat, as she pressed him against the row of metallic shelves behind him, her expression was nothing short of purely serious.
"If you don't leave right now and stop this, I will bend every last one of your fingers as far as I can until they break, then I'll ram this shark tooth so far down your throat that even your grand kids will be able to taste it. And that's just the beginning." Lynn made her threats readily apparent, she was drawing the line here, she let the young man go, shoving the shark tooth into his hands. Tense silence was filling the air.
Lynn was giving Jake a choice, if he refused, he knew he was going to be beaten within an inch of his life with no hesitation, that much was very apparent from the aspiring sports star's mannerisms. Lynn didn't feel comfortable making threats like this, she was actually just repeating what she had heard the aggressive personality saying what it wanted to do on the way here, yet kept that firm stance trying to rely on striking fear into Jake so he would give up.
"It looks like you're getting through to him, I have an idea on how to maybe get the last of the message through... If you don't want to fight, that is." The motherly personality began suggesting what Lynn could say to try and get through to him one last time, the sports star hated being in this position, she was not the best in a delicate situation, she felt like she was navigating a proverbial minefield, one wrong step and everything would blow up.
"Jake, your friends didn't ditch you, or mean to spit on your dream, you can become big on your own, but... No one can survive alone, not happily. You still have a chance to make this right by just stopping." Lynn decided to say what the maternal personality was weighing in with now, she did not enjoy listening to the voices at all, but she was desperate to avoid another fight. "You're not going to get anywhere if you spend all your time trying to ruin the competition instead of enjoying what you do, playing music." The brunette finished there; the silence only continued to magnify it felt like.
Without warning, Jake began to step towards her, Lynn initially was ready for the worst, it appeared as if something she had said had broken him, instead of attempting to attack her again however, he walked past her, his footsteps echoing with each step, the sound of the metal shutter rolling up only to be slammed shut. The auburn-haired girl let out a long breath that she did not even realize she had been holding in.
"Wow, you really didn't break his hands for what he did... What a letdown." The aggressive personality sounded disappointed and bored now, having been hoping for a brawl to outright break out when Jake had attempted to assault them like that.
"You did great, Lynn! I knew you'd be able to help stop him." The motherly personality hummed pleasantly, sounding proud.
"... Please tell me this wasn't some plan to bait him out." Lynn blinked upon hearing that, her head resting against the nearby wall as she tried to calm down.
"Well... I knew he wouldn't come back on his own, and we couldn't find him by ourselves, I thought you'd find a way to stop him, or teach him a lesson at worst." The motherly personality continued, sounding rather disappointed in herself.
"I don't trust you at all now either way." Lynn retorted, if this was a convoluted plan, she hated it. The brunette suddenly recalling Sully and Mazzy, she did not know what Jake had done to them. "Crap, I hope they're alright." She tried to hurry back to the main room of the practice area.
"Sully? Mazzy?" Lynn called out to them while stepping over to the makeshift sleeping area, the sports loving Loud felt her foot hit against something however, the sound of a glass bottle rolling across the floor ringing out. She looked down, seeing what looked like a bunch of beer bottles lining the ground, that was when she took notice of Sully and Mazzy's sleeping position, and as her eyes adjusted more to the poor lighting, realized their clothes were all over the ground too.
"They're drunk... Wait, Jake didn't break in here the second time, these idiots just didn't make sure the door was down all the way." Lynn rolled her eyes, that explained why neither of them woke up despite all the noise in the other room. Jake had literally gotten lucky on the break and enter, with zero breaking involved.
"You know what? At least someone's happy tonight." Lynn could only throw her arms up at that conclusion, she took notice of a few untouched beer bottles, looking at the very unconscious sleeping couple in the bed, she shrugged, taking two of the unopened bottles before making her way out of the abandoned workshop.
When Lynn got outside, she closed the metal shutter behind herself, immediately taking a seat on the ground, leaning her back against the closed door while resting one of the beer bottles beside herself. By now the moon was pretty high in the sky, it was a clear night out tonight, the sports fanatic was starting to feel the pain in her legs from just how hard she had been pedaling to get here faster, especially now that the adrenaline was wearing off. Lynn was feeling the exhaustion from today, the brunette's head felt a lot better already without the voices talking as much at the moment.
"I don't know if any of you things in my head can hear me right now, or if you're all just as exhausted as me..." Lynn held the beer bottle firmly with her left hand, bringing it up to her mouth as she bit down on the bottle cap, after a moment she was able to get it off, spitting the cap to the side and hearing it clatter to the ground.
"But after today, I think it's time I quit lying to myself... You split personalities are a part of me. Not like I'm any better than any of you, I don't know what you really want yet or why, but I'll figure it out." Lynn spoke out loud to herself, staring down at the full bottle momentarily before she brought it up to her lips and tilted back, taking a long swig of it. The main thing that was making the sporty Loud no longer deny the unfortunate reality she was facing, was Jake, seeing someone going insane from deluding themselves on their dream was a wake up call to her, while their problems might be drastically different, she knew she would get nowhere if she denied the existence of the split minds.
Lynn was not the biggest fan of alcohol, far from it actually, but she was taking this as a personal reward for tonight since it was more or less handed to her due to the situation, she had decided to no longer lie to herself, not like it had been working anyway, when she took the bottle away from her lips it was half empty in the one go, she sighed. The problem the brunette had with relenting that the personalities were in fact part of her, was all the implications that brought along with it, especially with the obsessed one, that personality was the one she still doubted the most.
Lynn heard the sound of her phone chiming, she picked it out of her pocket, she could see a bunch of text messages on her phone from a lot of her family, the majority of which being from Lincoln and Lori, she smiled, the 5th oldest Loud sent a few basic text messages back, most of them reading that she had handled the situation and she would be home late tonight, afterwards she rested the phone down beside her on the ground.
"Now I wish I just wasn't so scared of myself." Lynn could only weakly laugh at herself, admitting the split personalities were a part of her was a big step she felt like, it did not make them any less terrifying to her sadly. The brunette resuming drinking away at the beer bottle, just enjoying the late-night air for the time being. Her day had been nothing short, of an absolute chaotic mess, yet somehow in the end, she was able to maintain the veil of normality, for now. Even though Lynn knew very well every lie of hers dug her deeper and deeper into an unstable grave, she did not stop.
The only thing that kept Lynn's spirits and hope up now, was mostly knowing she was not alone in the endeavor, she couldn't believe she was looking forward to talking to Lisa about the ordeal as well, she just hoped Lincoln would forgive her for running off on her own like that tonight. Lynn opened the second beer bottle once the first was empty, deciding that for now, resting and partially clouding her mental state would be enough.